Mac

iFixit: Mac Pro 2019 teardown

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Been looking forward to this teardown. The most repairable Apple device, by far, though replacement parts might be expensive/hard to find.

Mac Pro: All that power, and one amazing display stand

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[VIDEO] This look at the new Mac Pro in the studio is a lot of fun (video embedded in main Loop post). Watch as the engineers try to stress the Mac Pro, adding more tracks, loaded with stacks of effects, all to no avail. The playback is smooth as glass.

But my favorite part is right at 3:06, when they attach the display to the stand. Cool to see, and that’s one solid stand. Also, don’t miss the display pivot which follows.

AppleCare+ costs about the same for cheapest MacBook and priciest Mac Pro

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Start off with a quick look at this Reddit post.

The premise is that the service fee for a repair on the cheapest Mac and the most expensive Mac are the same. Follow the headline link to jump to Apple’s official Mac service page to verify.

AppleCare+ for the cheapest Mac (the MacBook Air) is $249. AppleCare+ for that $52K monster Mac Pro configuration (with wheels) is $299.

The service fee for either is the same: $99 to repair a screen or external enclosure, $299 for other damage.

To be clear, this is not a complaint. I just found it interesting.

Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro – First impressions

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Vincent Laforet has also had a Mac Pro and associated hardware for the past two weeks. Rather than film an unboxing video and first impressions, Vincent shared his experience in a detailed blog post.

A few quotes:

In short: the Mac Pro makes post-production feel seamless. One might even say that at times the post-process can actually become delightful. And to be clear, the words “seamless” and “delightful” are seldom if ever used in conjunction with the words “post-production.”

And:

For tech geeks, this is the equivalent of punching the accelerator of a top of the line sports car.

And:

I’ve actually caught myself saying the word Gigabyte more than once when I meant Terabyte a few times when speaking with others – given how fast certain operations have become (notably with the internal ultra fast SSDs that can reach nearly 3,000 Megabytes per SECOND.) Copying several hundred gigabytes of data can take just a few minutes now – not hours (or days with slower drives or interfaces that are just 2-4 years old.)

If you have the need, the need for speed, read the whole thing.

Two Mac Pro unboxings, two weeks of real world use

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[VIDEO] A pair of excellent videos (embedded in main Loop post), shows off Apple’s massive Mac Pro packaging (recyclable, of course) and a chance to see the new shiny at work. Both Marques Brownlee and iJustine have had the machines for a few weeks now, which gives them a chance to share some real world experience.

Rack mount Mac Pro image in Apple’s FCC application

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Interesting to dig through the top level application for the rack mount version of the coming Mac Pro, if you like that sort of thing.

But follow the headline link to this sub-page, then scroll through the PDF to page 10 for an image of the rack mount Mac Pro in the wild. Sweet setup. Insert joke about Ikea, color choices, wheels, etc. here.

Jeff Benjamin’s video review of the 16-inch MacBook Pro

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[VIDEO] I generally enjoy Jeff Benjamin’s video reviews, have posted a number of them here. But this one (embedded in the main Loop post) really struck me, mostly because of Jeff’s reaction to the new MacBook keyboard, and his take on the old one.

If you are not into unboxing, skip to 2:50 for the machine itself. Good stuff, Jeff, makes me want one.

Time Machine: How it works, or fails to

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This is a great, detailed look at Time Machine and how it has evolved over time. Especially important is how Time Machine deals with the challenges of each new macOS X release, especially with the introduction of APFS and Catalina’s Volume Groups.

If you depend on Time Machine, take a few minutes to read this.

16″ MacBook Pro, real talk

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[VIDEO] There have been a lot of reviews of the new 16″ MacBook Pro. This review by Dave Lee (embedded in the main Loop post) is a bit different, in my mind the perfect marriage of technical and practical, especially useful if you are looking at upgrading, considering which model to buy.

Time Machine and backing up in Catalina

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This is important stuff. If nothing else, when (and preferably before) you make the leap to Catalina, read the “summary recommendations” about a page down. The first two:

  • Before upgrading to Catalina, make one last backup (or two!), then turn Time Machine off.

  • Once you have upgraded, turn Time Machine back on but using a new backup set which won’t then be accessible from macOS 10.14.x or earlier.

From Apple’s Time Machine support document, updated for Catalina:

If you create a backup on a Mac or partition with macOS Catalina, you can only use that backup on Mac computers or partitions with macOS Catalina.

Seems to me, this is a sea change for Time Machine.

[VIDEO] iFixit’s 2019 MacBook Pro 16″ teardown

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[VIDEO] Much of the new MacBook Pro is still very difficult to repair, but there have been some gains here. Watch the video embedded in the main Loop post to see for yourself. I think the easier to remove trackpad, fans, Thunderbolt ports should give a boost to the repairability score, 1/10 seems harsh.

That aside, this is a gorgeous looking machine.

Steve Jobs was right: Smartphones and tablets killed the PC

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Farhad Manjoo, New York Times:

I got an iPad Pro recently, and I’ve fallen madly in love with it.

And:

Apple unveiled a new 16-inch MacBook with a revamped keyboard on Wednesday, good news for the many Apple lovers who’ve been grumbling about the company’s lackluster slate of recent Macs. But I think the iPad is already beginning to eclipse the traditional personal computer. In the four months I’ve had this latest model, the iPad Pro has eaten into the time I spend on my phone and my old-school laptop and desktop. Among other things, I now research and write just about every column using an iPad.

And:

In one of his last interviews before his death in 2011, Jobs declared the iPad to be the future of computing. “PCs are going to be like trucks,” he told the journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg — meaning the traditional Mac and Windows machines would still be around, but like big rigs, they’d be used by a small set of power users for a dwindling set of specific, high-power tasks. The “cars” of the tech industry, as Jobs saw it, would be phones and tablets.

That opening line really caught me by surprise. Not used to such Apple praise from The New York Times. Interesting read, fair take on the iPad’s impact on the PC market.

Rollup of takes on 16″ MacBook Pro

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Michael Tsai pulled together a terrific collection of various comments and feedback on the new MacBook Pro. Some great takes here, all edited down to their essentials.

Phil Schiller, one-on-one for the new 16″ MacBook Pro

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[VIDEO] It’s not quite the same as Phil on stage, heard live around the world but, for me, this is the next best thing.

Jonathan Morrison, one-on-one with Phil Schiller, talking about the newest shiny. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Rene Ritchie: 16″ MacBook Pro video review

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[VIDEO] As you’d expect, there’s been a huge wave of reviews of the new 16″ MacBook Pro, including these write-ups from John Gruber and Marco Arment (I do prefer Marco’s tweet headline), both worth reading.

But don’t miss Rene Ritchie’s video take on the new MacBook Pro (video embedded in main Loop post). As you’d expect from Rene, it’s chock full of detail and, best of all (at least to me), lots of side-by-side shots of the old and the new, so you can really see the difference, at least the surface difference, between the two machines.

And one detail that struck me was the 100W battery being the largest battery you are allowed to take on a plane, at least without special permission. Sounds like we’re at peak battery.

100% of Fortune 500 companies are using Apple products

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This headline hooked me. An amazing achievement for Apple, for sure, but even more so for those of us who remember how difficult it was to get a Mac into a big company. At all.

Windows and Word became the standards, and the Mac was always the poor stepchild, smuggled in by the passionate, and usually via the art departments, thanks to applications like Aldus/Adobe PageMaker and accompanied by a LaserWriter printer.

The iPhone changed everything.

Why you might see a new “Data” disk in Catalina

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Glenn Fleishman, Macworld:

Apple took system protection to the next level in macOS 10.15 Catalina by splitting your normal boot volume into two pieces. It appears like a single volume on the Desktop, but it’s really two: one is labeled with the volume’s name, while the other has “- Data” appended to it.

Great explainer on the new boot volume setup, with a side mention of that “Relocated Items” folder alias you’ll likely see on your desktop when you install Catalina.

Six reasons why iOS 13 and Catalina are so buggy

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David Shayer, TidBITS:

iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 Catalina have been unusually buggy releases for Apple. The betas started out buggy at WWDC in June, which is not unexpected, but even after Apple removed some features from the final releases in September, more problems have forced the company to publish quick updates. Why? Based on my 18 years of experience working as an Apple software engineer, I have a few ideas.

Who is David Shayer? From the bio:

David Shayer was an Apple software engineer for 18 years. He worked on the iPod, the Apple Watch, and Apple’s bug-tracking system Radar, among other projects.

My default when I hit posts like these is to take everything with a grain of salt, set skepticism on high. Read the pundit takes, read the bio (look for an axe to grind), and read the comments below the post.

This one passes the vast majority of those tests. This doesn’t feel like post-Apple spite, but rather a knowledgable take on problems, with thoughts on where things are going wrong.

Apple is a fast moving train, steadily producing and refining immensely complex products. Apple is dancing to the opposing forces of satisfying shareholder demands for ever-increasing growth, and user demands to stop and fix the bugs. Short of halting forward progress and retooling, there’s no easy answer here.

Luna Display, sherlocked, shifts neatly to Mac-to-Mac screen sharing

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[VIDEO] Luna Display. A little red device that turned your iPad into a second display for your Mac. Until this happened.

Rather than gripe about their bad fortune, the company behind Luna Display pivoted neatly to some clever new functionality. As you can see in the video embedded in the main Loop post, you can now use Luna Display to turn a second Mac into an external display for your primary Mac.

Nicely done.

Install Catalina? Here’s what that “Relocated Items” folder that just appeared is all about

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Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

After upgrading to macOS Catalina, you may be surprised to discover a shortcut on your Mac’s desktop to a Relocated Items folder that wasn’t there previously. The generation of this folder is actually normal behavior when upgrading an older version of macOS to Catalina, but we’re highlighting it in this article because a lot of users are confused about why the folder exists and what to do with its contents.

Happened to me. Made my way through a bumpy Catalina install, then encountered this brand new folder shortcut on my desktop.

One key takeaway:

The Relocated Items folder you see on the Desktop is just a shortcut that can be safely deleted. Doing so will not remove the folder or its contents from your hard disk. You can find the actual folder in /Users/Shared/Relocated Items.

But if you’ve done the Catalina install, worth spending a minute reading Tim’s explainer.

Waiting to update to Catalina

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Working out the math of whether or not to update to Catalina? Take a few minutes to step through these quotes Michael Tsai collected from various members of the Mac technorati.

I am writing these words from my Catalina install. Though I did run into some snags with the install, so far my Catalina experience has been rock solid.

If you do decide to make the leap to Catalina: Obviously, do a complete backup before you start, and spend the time digging through the list of your 32-bit apps to make sure there’s nothing on that list that you’ll miss.

To do that:

  • Apple menu > About This Mac
  • Click the System Report button
  • In the sidebar on the left, scroll to Software > Legacy Software

Anything you absolutely need? Check to see if there’s a 64-bit upgrade. Do the upgrade before you install Catalina.

Twitter returns to the Mac with new Catalyst app

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Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

macOS Catalina was released to the public earlier this week, making it easier for developers to port their iPad apps to the Mac. Twitter is joining the club today with a new Catalyst version of its iPad app that’s now available on the Mac App Store.

In case you want to dive in, here’s a link to the new Mac Twitter client.

This feels like a beta app, a work-in-progress. Try it for yourself. One clue: When you get to the login screen, try resizing the window. The panes within don’t resize. They are non-responsive. This is basic stuff. I suspect this is a Catalyst issue, not a Twitter issue, but not certain.

If you’ve got access to Catalina, try it out, see for yourself. Me? I’m back at my regular 3rd party Twitter client.

[VIDEO] Hands on with macOS Catalina

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[VIDEO] Jeff Benjamin walks you through all the big changes that come with macOS Catalina. Excellent work.

If you’re impatient, the content starts at :57 in. And if you don’t care about Catalyst, jump to 2:40 and start right off with Sidecar. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Take Apple’s macOS Catalina tour, even from your iPhone

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Follow the headline link to take Apple’s official Catalina tour. You’ll likely want to click or tap one of the arrows at some point, just to switch the tour to manual. Makes it much easier to follow. But worth stepping through.

I love that this works fine on your iOS device, or on an older version of macOS. Gives you a chance to learn, without committing to the install. Be sure to click the + when it appears on a page to learn more.

Catalina and Sidecar

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One of the many features that came along with iOS 13 and macOS Catalina is Sidecar, the ability to connect your iPad to your Mac as a second display, one that supports touch and Apple Pencil.

Have you heard about Sidecar, but not yet given it a try? Check out the linked doc, Apple’s detailed, but easy-to-follow Sidecar overview and set-up instructions.

If you’ve updated to Catalina, do give this a try. It’s kind of cool.

[UPDATE 2, new statement from Avid and Google] Avid releases statement on widespread issues affecting Mac Pros and Avid software

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Earlier this morning, we linked to a Variety article detailing a mysterious issue knocking out Mac Pros across Hollywood.

Avid emailed us the following statement:

Avid is aware of the reboot issue affecting Apple Mac Pro devices running some Avid products, which arose late yesterday. This issue is top priority for our engineering and support teams, who have been working diligently to determine and resolve the root cause. As we learn more, we will immediately publish information—directly to our customers and via our community forums and social media platforms—in order to resolve this issue for all affected customers and prevent any further issues.

More as we hear it.

UPDATE: Avid shared a video with us this evening, with the latest updates on the situation. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.

UPDATE 2: Avid sent us this update this morning:

Today, Avid is confirming that the root cause for a reboot issue encountered by some of our customers has been identified and is unrelated to Avid and its creative tools. Google confirmed that a Chrome update “may have shipped with a bug that damages the file system on macOS machines.” Google has paused its release and provided instructions for affected users.

Avid is also pleased to share that it has received no reports of data loss by affected customers. From the beginning when this issue was made known to Avid, our teams actively worked with customers, Apple and partners to identify solutions and communicate them to customers. At this time, most affected Avid customers have recovered from this issue by reinstalling their macOS. Avid received no reports of incidents from customers running on non-Mac operating systems. To reiterate, this was not an Avid issue, as was reported in some early media coverage.

And from the Google Chrome support team:

We recently discovered that a Chrome update may have shipped with a bug that damages the file system on macOS machines with System Integrity Protection (SIP) disabled, including machines that do not support SIP. We’ve paused the release while we finalize a new update that addresses the problem.

If you have not taken steps to disable System Integrity Protection and your computer is on OS X 10.9 or later, this issue cannot affect you.

If this bug affected you, follow this link to the Google Chrome support article for details on the fix.

Mysterious AVID issue knocks out Mac Pros across Hollywood

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This one is still unfolding, but wow.

Variety:

Film and TV editors across Los Angeles were sweating Monday evening as their workstations were refusing to reboot, resulting in speculations about a possible computer virus attack. Social media reports suggested that the issue was widespread among users of Mac Pro computers running older versions of Apple’s operating system as well as AVID’s Media Composer software.

This is astonishing. Not just one or two Mac Pros, but a bunch of them, all refusing to reboot.

Some analysis by affected users seemed to suggest that the outage may not have been caused by a virus, but by a recent software update that may have corrupted some data, with some suggesting a OS X reinstall that keeps the existing data to restart the machine. Either way, it’s a good idea for anyone running AVID software on a Mac to back up all data right away.

Note that these are the trash can Mac Pros, not a secret rollout of the not yet released Mac Pros announced at WWDC.